Diplomats from dozens of countries walked out of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approached the podium, emptying rows of the chamber in protest before he could say a word.
Cheers and chants in support of Palestine broke out Thursday afternoon as dozens of diplomats stormed out. The protest led to a gaveling and a call for “order in the hall!”
Netanyahu answered the exodus from the stage with a firm retort.
“If there are any other moral cowards who have not left this hall, please do so now,” he said to a visibly thinned-out room.
The walkout comes amid protests against Israel’s brutality in Gaza, where the war has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, and against Netanyahu personally. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him last year over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity tied to the siege of Gaza, a warrant he rejects.
Netanyahu arrived in New York at odds with the city’s leaders. He spent the run-up to the trip attacking Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who previously warned he would seek to enforce the ICC warrant if Netanyahu set foot in the city. In a video before the speech, Netanyahu declared, “Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani!” and accused him of “supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters” and inciting violence against Jewish New Yorkers.
That claim landed flat even on Fox News, where correspondent Trey Yingst flatly rebutted it, noting that Netanyahu’s video said Mamdani “strongly supported Hamas, which… isn’t true.”
The mass exit was not the first of the week’s UN drama. A day earlier, President Donald Trump used his own General Assembly address to threaten to “annihilate” Iran, remarks one New York Times reporter characterized as a threat to commit a war crime.
Netanyahu after the UNGA emptied out ahead of his speech: “If there any other moral cowards who have not left the hall, please do so now.” pic.twitter.com/5I3ceI0bSM — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 24, 2026
Dozens of delegates from member states walk out of the UN general assembly in protest of Netanyahu’s speech pic.twitter.com/afxM14UN8u — Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) September 24, 2026
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